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Recital - Ecology of Souls: Exploring Folklore, Death, & the Paranormal in Music



I am deeply—deeply—honored to share this with everyone. Several months ago, Michelle Świderska Law, a phenomenally-talented soprano, contacted me to share her intention to put together a recital based on Ecology of Souls.


I've written before about how the response to that project has simply overwhelmed me. Not only have people found it a worthwhile contribution to paranormal study, but it seems to have had a profound emotional effect on many people. I am not sure I am worthy of any such praise, but remain grateful.


As a classically-trained musician myself, I can't express how deeply Michelle's request touched me. I know how much work goes into a recital, from learning the rep to rehearsing and then, finally, the performance.


Here's a link to the event, which takes place October 20 and 27 at San Diego's Villa Montezuma Museum. It looks like not only a phenomenal program, but an amazing setting as well.


I struggled to find the words to include in the program, but here's what I managed to say:           


I haven’t been investigating things that go bump in the night all that long, in the grand scheme of things. Though I certainly don’t feel like it, there are plenty of paranormal “old salts” who would consider me a rookie.

            But I’ve been around long enough to notice plenty of consistent themes, too many to enumerate, coming from all paranormal domains: ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, fairies. It’s part of how I gradually Goldilocks’d myself into a position where I have a hard time distinguishing one from the other, apart from the superficialities with which they present themselves. That, in large part, is what my 2022 book Ecology of Souls is about: placing these separate phenomena in dialogue to support viewing them as a singular phenomenon.

            One of the most consistent refrains I have heard from experiencers is that our language, no matter our native tongue, fails to encapsulate the nuance, majesty, and uncanniness of these experiences. All too often, frustrated people use phrases like, “It defies language,” “Words cannot describe it,” etc.

            I consider myself fortunate—before having dived into the strange and unusual—to have long considered a place beyond language my first home. I am a classically-trained tubist, and, as such, I have long understood music’s ability to convey the inexpressible. It’s the musician’s stock-and-trade. On my best days, I may even convey a little of that meaning myself in my playing. Maybe.

            Naturally, upon hearing Michelle’s plan to organize a recital around Ecology of Souls, I was delighted and deeply honored. I never expected my work to touch anyone at a level half so profound. Add to that the staggering amount of work that I know goes into a recital—choosing repertoire, practicing, rehearsing, planning the logistics—and I find myself in that place I mentioned earlier. “There are no words.”

            I find it interesting that so much repertoire from the 19th and early 20th centuries—like that presented here—speaks to the themes in my book. Interesting, but unsurprising. There’s something about the Romantic era and its natural evolution that touches the core of who we are. Of what we are.

Though my old theory professors might disagree, I tend to view the Baroque and Classical as sacred geometry, attempts to encode the face of God through sound. Beautiful, miraculous, valuable, divine… but somehow impersonal.

By contrast, everything after that era is an attempt to portray ourselves and our experiences through music. I appreciate Classical music but have always resonated more meaningfully with Romantic and contemporary composers.

(I reiterate: this is solely my opinion. It’s probably wrong, but we don’t always exercise as much control over our opinions as we think. As a tuba player, my instrument’s late “birthdate” no doubt plays a factor.)

            But, when all is said and done, that’s what makes this program so appropriate for Ecology of Souls. I do suspect that there is some other intelligence interacting with us. But whatever it is, it is intimate. I feel that it tailor-produces experiences for our benefit, not to its own ends. It cannot be viewed outside the prism of human experience—like trees falling silently in a forest with no one around to hear it, I wonder if phenomena like ghosts, cryptids, UFOs, and fairies would exist at all without us to appreciate them. We need them, and they need us.

We seek for the Other in the heavens, beyond the stars. Too often, I wonder if we should turn our gaze inward.

            My heartfelt congratulations to Michelle, Danielle, and Phillip. From concept to execution, you have accomplished something marvelous. I deeply regret not being able to attend these performances. But autumn is insanely busy for me, between spooky season and Oktoberfest gigs (tuba player, remember?).

There may be no words to convey the depth of gratitude, enthusiasm, honor, and support that fills my heart. But listen closely.

In those moments when Michelle and her colleagues accomplish what only music can, when they pull you into those tremendous heights of divine beauty and emotion—that is what I am trying to say.

            From the performers to the audience: thank you.

 

-       Joshua Cutchin, wearing lederhosen somewhere in Georgia, September 2024

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A Trojan Feast
 

Can small, almost mundane details in accounts of anomalous events—be it encounters with UFO entities, faeries, or Sasquatch—reveal anything valuable about the nature of these unusual events?

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